Potted Plants
Solution
Beth will need 20 window boxes.
Explanation
Step 1
Use the clues to find out how many plants of each type Beth bought.
Begonias (4 plants per pack)
Beth bought 10 packs of begonias. There are 4 begonia plants to a pack.
Think: 10 x 4 = 40 begonia plants
Lilies (2 plants per pack)
There are 4 fewer packs of lilies than packs of begonias.
Think: 10 – 4 = 6
There are 6 packs of lilies.
There are 2 lily plants per pack.
Think: 6 x 2 = 12 lily plants
Daisies (6 plants per pack)
There are 2 more packs of lilies than packs of daisies.
Think: 6 – 2 = 4
There are 4 packs of daisies.
There are 6 daisy plants per pack.
Think: 4 x 6 = 24 daisy plants
Geraniums (3 plants per pack)
The number of packs of geraniums equals the number of packs of daisies.
Since there are 4 packs of daisies, there are 4 packs of geraniums.
There are 3 geranium plants per pack.
Think: 4 x 3 = 12 geranium plants
Step 2
Use the clues to find out how many window boxes Beth needed for each type of plant.
Begonias
There are 40 begonia plants. Beth will plant 8 begonias to a window box.
Think: 40 ÷ 8 = 5
Beth will need 5 window boxes for the begonias.
Lilies
There are 12 lily plants.
Beth will plant 4 lily plants in each window box.
Think: 12 ÷ 4 = 3
Beth will need 3 window boxes for the lilies.
Daisies
There are 24 daisy plants.
Beth will plant 3 daisy plants in each window box.
Think: 24 ÷ 3 = 8
Beth will need 8 window boxes for the daisies.
Geraniums
There are 12 geranium plants.
Beth will plant 3 geraniums in each window box.
Think: 12 ÷ 3 = 4
Beth will need 4 window boxes for the geraniums.
Step 3
Find the total number of window boxes.
5 + 3 + 8 + 4 = 20 window boxes needed for all the plants.
Beth will need 20 window boxes for all the plants.
| Plant | Number of plants per pack | Number of packs | Multiplication sentence to show number of plants | Total number of plants | Number of plants per window box | Division sentence to find number of window boxes | Number of window boxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Begonias | 4 | 10 | 4 x 10 = 40 | 40 | 8 | 40 ÷ 8 = 5 | 5 |
| Lilies | 2 | 6 | 2 x 6 = 12 | 12 | 4 | 12 ÷ 4 = 3 | 3 |
| Daisies | 6 | 4 | 6 x 4 = 24 | 24 | 3 | 24 ÷ 3 = 8 | 8 |
| Geraniums | 3 | 4 | 3 x 4 = 12 | 12 | 3 | 12 ÷ 3 = 4 | 4 |
| 20 |